Pickup trucks are popular vehicles providing convenient transportation combined with greater cargo carrying capacity than typical forms of personal transportation, including automobiles and sports utility vehicles and the like. Design criteria for pickup trucks consider expected frequency of cargo transportation and include cargo box or truck bed space to satisfy common requirements. On occasion, oversize items such as ladders, planks and boards may overlap the length or width of the truck bed or of the truck itself. Without suitable adaptation, oversize items may be loaded precariously so that they project over the sides and rear of the vehicle. Having exceeded the capacity of the truck bed, oversize objects become unsafe obstructions. A solution to safety problems is to increase the amount of cargo space using an elevated support frame or cargo carrier secured either to the bed of the pickup truck or to the sidewalls of the cargo box, for example.
Known elevated cargo carriers for pickup trucks have various disadvantages. One example of a known elevated cargo carrier is probably better factory installed due to its bulk and design complexity. A bulky cargo carrier includes parts of significant size that could require special delivery. In some cases, parts are commonly custom manufactured for a specific make and model of pickup truck. Custom manufactured cargo carriers sold after manufacture of the truck present problems related to their delivery and assembly by the user.
Another type of known elevated cargo carrier has a complex structure that allows the carrier to be folded for storage in the bed of the pickup truck, against the rear wall of the vehicle cab, for example. In this case the parts used for assembly of the elevated cargo carrier include custom bars and custom hinges that both support and facilitate folding of the carrier frame. The folding cargo carrier may be useful to provide additional cargo carrying area when required but this benefit is offset by the need to essentially re-assemble the cargo carrier each time it is unfolded to provide elevated cargo space to accommodate large or extended items.
In contrast to bulky elevated cargo carriers and those of complex structures including folding capability, there are relatively simple structures that are easy to install to provide a support structure above the bed of a pickup truck. An example of an easily installed cargo carrier uses supports attached to the bed of the truck or walls of the cargo box to raise a pair of crossbars to a height above the roofline of the pickup truck. The crossbars are deployed with one at the forward end of the truck bed and the other towards the tailgate. Use of this type of cargo carrier is limited to support for elongate objects such as ladders having a length that exceeds that of the pickup truck bed. The two-point support of the crossbars allows ladders and the like to be slid into a balanced position extending over the pickup truck cab.
Simple structures of the type described above providing two-point support have limited functionality. Improved functionality results by constructing elevated cargo carriers to include a reinforcing rail structure running in the lengthwise direction of vehicle. An example of this type of cargo carrier has a rail attached to opposing ends of a number of cross bars to rise upwards from the crossbar. This type of construction creates a lengthwise erect barrier, at the side of the vehicle, which users must reach over when removing items supported on the crossbars. Restricted access to cargo is both inconvenient and could lead to situations in which users may employ unsafe methods to raise large and unwieldy objects above the height of the elevated cargo carrier.
FIG. 1 exemplifies a prior art ladder rack assembly disclosed by Levi in U.S. Pat. No. 6,971,563. The ladder rack assembly comprises first 10 and second 12 tubular bars designed to extend across the width dimension of the vehicle, e.g. a pickup truck, above its roof line. The tubular bars provide two-point 10, 12 support for elongate objects such as ladders or planks and the like having a length greater than the length of the pickup truck bed. During transportation, unsupported ends of elongate objects could hang precariously above the roof and behind the tailgate of the vehicle. The rack of Levi is exemplary of the structure referred to previously as a standard elevated rack.
FIG. 2 shows a prior art truck rack assembly 1 disclosed by Moore in U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,905. The truck rack 1 includes additional cross members 22, providing more points of support for elongate objects. As illustrated, the truck rack 1 of Moore includes a forward extension including cross members generally identified by numeral 23 having at either end two side frames 18 providing support and counterbalancing the cantilevered forward extension.
By providing additional support in the form of more cross bars and the forward extension, the truck rack of Moore represents a less precarious mode of transporting elongate objects than that of Levi. However, the side frames tend to limit loading of objects to rear vehicle access. Loading the rack from the rear may be satisfactory for oversize elongate objects such as ladders and boards, but restricted access from the side of the vehicle limits use of the truck rack for attachment of a variety of accessories to the cross bars of the rack.
In view of the above described deficiencies associated with the use of known designs for elevated cargo carriers, the present invention has been developed to alleviate these drawbacks and provide further benefits to the user. These enhancements and benefits are described in greater detail hereinbelow with respect to several alternative embodiments of the present invention.